Napoleon Bonaparte

Rise and Fall and The Restoration

He was First Consul (Premier Consul) of the French Republic from November 11, 1799 until May 18, 1804, then Emperor of the French (Empereur des Fran�ais) and King of Italy under the name Napol�on I from May 18, 1804 until April 6, 1814, and again briefly from March 20 to June 22, 1815.

Napoleon, over the course of little more than a decade, acquired control of most or all of the western and central mainland of Europe by conquest or alliance, until his defeat at the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig in October 1813.

He later staged a comeback, known as the Hundred Days (les Cent Jours), before being decisively defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium on June 18, 1815, followed shortly afterwards by his capture by the British and his exile to the island of Saint Helena, where he died. Napol�on is considered a great military genius, perhaps one of the greatest of all time.

Aside from his military achievements, Napoleon is also remembered for the establishment of the Napoleonic codes, and he is considered to have been one of the "enlightened monarchs".

Napoleon appointed several members of the Bonaparte family as monarchs; although they did not survive his downfall, a nephew, Napoleon III, ruled France later in the century.

Early Life and Military Career

He was born Nabulio Buonaparte in the city of Ajaccio on Corsica. He later adopted the more French-sounding Napoleon Bonaparte, the first known instance of which appears in an official report dated March 28, 1796.

His family was of minor Corsican nobility. His father, Carlo Buonaparte, an Italian-born attorney, was named Corsica's representative to the court of Louis XVI in 1778, where he remained for a number of years.

Biographers agree that the dominant influence of Napoleon's life was his mother, Laetitia. Ahead of her time, she had her 8 children bathed every other day, at a time when even those in the upper classes bathed perhaps once a month.

Carlo arranged for Napoleon's education in France. He entered a military school at Brienne-le-Ch�teau, a small town near Troyes, on May 15, 1779.

Napoleon considered himself an outsider, not learning French until the age of 10. Accusations of being a foreigner would dog him throughout his life, especially since he spoke French with a Corsican accent.

Thanks to his father's influence, Napoleon was admitted into the elite �cole Militaire in Paris, from which he graduated in September, 1785, receiving his commission as a 2nd lieutenant of artillery in January 1785, at the age of 16. He then attended the royal artillery school at Auxonne near Dole.

When the French Revolution began in 1789, Napoleon returned to Corsica, where a nationalist struggle sought separation from France.

Civil war broke out, and after coming into conflict with Pasquale Paoli, Napoleon's family fled to France. Napoleon supported the Revolution and quickly rose throughthe ranks. In 1793, he helped free Toulon from the royalists and from the British troops supporting them. In 1795, when royalists marched against the National Convention in Paris, he had them shot.

He was nicknamed The Little Corporal (le petit caporal) after his victories at the Italian border. The name, roughly translated to "low ranking" or "unknown" corporal, was given to him by his soldiers in 1796 when Napoleon, then a very young and unknown corporal, was in charge of the lacklustre and demoralized French army at the Italian border.

A heroic episode of crossing a bridge at the Battle of Lodi that year endeared him to the French and brought him recognition as a leader.

Contrary to popular myth, the name 'little' was not in reference to his height (he was 5 foot 7 inches (170 cm) tall, which was actually taller than average for a Frenchman of his time).

Napoleon was a brilliant military strategist, able to absorb the substantial body of military knowledge of his time and to apply it to contemporary, real-world circumstances. An artillery officer by training, he innovatively used the artillery as a mobile force to support infantry attacks.

When appointed commander-in-chief of the ill-equipped French army in Italy, he managed to defeat Austrian forces repeatedly. In these battles, contemporary paintings of his headquarters show that he used the world's first telecommunications system, the Chappe semaphore line, first implemented in 1792.

Austrian forces, led by Archduke Charles, had to negotiate an unfavorable treaty; at the same time, Napoleon organized a coup in 1797, which removed several royalists from power in Paris.

Invasion of Egypt; Rise to Power

In 1798, the French government, afraid of Bonaparte's popularity, charged him with the task of invading Egypt to undermine Britain's access to India.

An indication of Napoleon's devotion to the principles of the Enlightenment was his decision to take scholars along on his expedition.

Among the other discoveries that resulted, the Rosetta Stone was found. He was defeated by Cezzar Ahmet in Syria, near the Castle of Saida.

While Napoleon had massive success against the native Mamluk army (his 25,000 strong invading force defeated a 100,000 army), his fleet in Egypt was largely destroyed by Nelson at The Battle of the Nile, so that Napoleon became land-bound.

According to an enduring myth, while in Egypt, Napoleon ordered his troops to use the Sphinx for target practice, destroying its nose in the process.

Though the origin of this myth is unclear, it is thought to have been perpetuated by guides native to the region, and also, no doubt, by scholars who find in it an expression of the West's brutish and essentially myopic disregard for the culture of the rest of the world.

A coalition against France formed in Europe, the royalists rose again, and Napoleon abandoned his troops and returned to Paris in 1799. In November of that year, a coup d'�tat made him First Consul of France; according to the French Revolutionary Calendar, the date was 18 Brumaire.

The Constitution of the Year VIII made him the person holding the most power in France, a power that was even increased by the Constitution of the Year X, which made him First Consul for life.

Napoleon instituted several lasting reforms including the metric system, higher education, a tax system, a central bank, law codes, and road and sewer systems. His set of civil laws, the Napoleonic Code or Civil Code, has importance to this day in many countries.

The Code was largely the work of Jean Jacques R�gis de Cambac�r�s, who held the office Second Consul under Bonaparte from 1799 to 1804.

Other codes were commissioned by Napoleon to deal with criminal and commerce law; in 1808, a Code of Criminal Instruction was published, which laid precise rules of operations for courts and, though it may seem somewhat biased in favor of the prosecution by today's standards, sought to preserve personal freedoms and remedy the abuses commonplace in the European courts of the day.

Government; Maintaining Power

Napoleon rose to prominence in the armies of the the French Revolution, much of it a period of great civil disorder. His rise to power is generally seen as the end of that revolution and a restoration of civil order.

His administration brought about administrative uniformity and sent an army of officials to every village. His strong central government fulfilled the revolution's project of linking the entire nation together, but also instituted an arbitrary police state with secret agents who carried out arrests and executions. He discontinued freedom of the press and reversed many of the gains of the revolution.

Although Napoleon was deist, he recognized the unifying force of religion and its ability to bring about national unity and social cohesion. He reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church via the Concordat of 1801; an agreement with Pope Pius VII which also helped legitimize his rule amongst Catholics.

Struggle in Europe; Advance to Emperor

In June 1800, the Austrians were routed at Marengo. Napoleon returned to Paris to disprove the rumors about his defeat and death.

Napoleon's brother Joseph, who was leading the peace negotiations in Lun�ville, reported that due to British backing for Austria, Austria would not recognize France's newly gained territory.

As negotiations became more and more fractious, Napoleon gave orders to his general Moreau to strike Austria once more. Moreau led France to victory at Hohenlinden in 1800.

As a result, the Treaty of Lun�ville was signed in February 1801, under which the French gains of the Campo Formio treaty were reaffirmed and increased; the British also committed themselves to sign a peace treaty and finally signed the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802, in which Malta was to be handed over to France.

It was during this period that Napoleon tried to ensure peace in Europe. However, his enemies had difficulties in recognizing a republic, as all the countries bordering France were kingdoms and were horrified that the ideas of the revolution might be exported to them.

In Britain, the brother of Louis XVI was welcomed as a state guest, although officially, Britain recognized France as a republic. While France complied with some of the provisions of the treaty, for strategic reasons Britain did not cede Malta to France.

In 1803, Napoleon sold a large part of North America to the United States�the Louisiana Purchase�for less than three cents per acre ($7.40/km�). He had just faced a major setback when an army he had sent to conquer Santo Domingo and establish a base was destroyed by a combination of yellow fever and fierce resistance led by Toussaint L'Ouverture.

With his western forces diminished, Napoleon knew he would be unable to defend Louisiana and decided to sell it to finance the war against Britain, which at that time was more or less inevitable.

The dispute over Malta provided the pretext for Britain to declare war on France in 1803 to support French royalists. Napol�on, however, crowned himself Emperor on December 2, 1804, (illustration, right) at the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Claims that he seized the crown out of the hands of Pope Pius VII during the ceremony in order to avoid subjecting himself to the authority of the pontiff are apocryphal.

After the Imperial regalia had been blessed by the Pope, Napoleon crowned himself before crowning his wife Jos�phine as Empress. Then, at Milan's cathedral on May 26,1805, Napoleon was crowned King of Italy, with the Iron Crown of Lombardy.

A plan by the French, along with the Spanish, to defeat the Royal Navy failed dramatically at the Battle of Trafalgar (October 21, 1805), and Britain gained lasting control of the seas.

By 1805, the Third Coalition against Napol�on had formed in Europe. Napoleon attacked and secured a major victory against Austria and Russia at Austerlitz (December 2nd) and, in the following year, humbled Prussia at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, October 14, 1806.

As a result, Napolon became the de-facto ruler over most of Germany. Napol�on marched on through Poland and then signed a treaty with the Russian tsar Alexander I, dividing Europe between the two powers. In the French part of Poland, he established the restored Polish state of Grand Duchy de Varsovie with the Saxonian King as a ruler.

Then on May 17, 1809, Napoleon ordered the annexation of the Papal States to the French empire.

Battles in Spain, Austria and Russia

Since he failed at conquering the British militarily, he decided to try to conquer them economically, by banning all merchandise and ships from continental Europe.

He again failed, however, because it turned out that continental Europe needed England more than England needed them. Napol�on attempted to enforce a Europe-wide commercial boycott of Britain, called the "Continental System".

He invaded Spain and installed his brother Joseph Bonaparte as king there. The Spanish rose in revolt, which Napoleon was unable to suppress. The British invaded Spain through Portugal in 1808, and with the aid of the Spanish nationalists, slowly drove out the French.

While France was engaged in Spain, Austria attacked in Germany. However, after an initial success, Austria suffered defeat at the Battle of Wagram, July 6, 1809.

Alexander I of Russia had become distrustful of Napol�on and refused to co-operate with him against the British. In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia.

Napoleon ignored the advice of the Poles, who predicted long-term war rather than a quick victorious campaign. They proposed to retrieve former Polish areas from Russian hands gradually and build a base for further war there.

As the Poles predicted, the Russians under Kutuzov, who declared the Patriotic War, retreated instead of giving battle. Outside of Moscow, on September 12th, the Battle of Borodino took place.

The Russians retreated and Napol�on was able to enter Moscow, assuming that Alexander I would negotiate peace. Moscow began to burn and within the month, fearing loss of control in France, Napoleon left Moscow.

The French Grand Army suffered greatly in the course of a ruinous retreat. The Army had begun as over 400,000 men, but in the end, fewer than 10,000 crossed the Berezina River, in November, 1812, to escape. Encouraged by this dramatic reversal, several nations again took up arms against France. The decisive defeat of the French came at the Battle of Leipzig, also called "The Battle of the Nations", during October 16-19, 1813.

Defeat,; Exile in Elba; Return and Waterloo

In 1814, Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria formed an alliance against Napoleon. Although the defense of France included many battles which the French won, the pressure became overwhelming. Paris was occupied on March 31, 1814.

His marshals asked Napoleon to abdicate, and he did so on April 6th, in favour of his son. The Allies, however, demanded unconditional surrender and Napol�on abdicated again, unconditionally, on April 11th.

In the Treaty of Fontainebleau, the victors exiled the Corsican to Elba, a small island in the Mediterranean, 20 km off the coast of Italy. They let him keep the title of "Emperor", but, restricted his empire to that tiny island.

There, Napoleon tried to poison himself and failed. On the voyage to Elba he was almost assassinated. In France, the royalists had taken over and restored King Louis XVIII to power.

On Elba, Napoleon became concerned about his wife and, more especially, his son, in the hands of the Austrians. The French government refused to pay his allowance and he heard rumours that he was about to be banished to a remote island in the Atlantic. Napole on escaped from Elba on February 26, 1815, and returned to the mainland on March 1, 1815.

When he returned to the mainland, King Louis XVIII sent troops to stop him. Napoleon simply got out of his carriage and walked up to the soldiers and said "If any man would like to shoot his emperor, he may do so".

The men then followed him into Paris. He arrived on March 20, with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000 and governed for a Hundred Days.

Napoleon's final defeat came at the hands of the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Bl�cher at the Battle of Waterloo, in present-day Belgium on June 18, 1815.

Off the port of Rochefort, Napoleon made his formal surrender while on board HMS Bellerophon, on July 15, 1815.

Exile in Saint Helena and Death

Napoleon was imprisoned and then exiled by the British to the island of Saint Helena (2,800 km off the Bight of Guinea) on October 15, 1815. There, with a small cadre of followers, he dictated his memoirs and criticized his captors.

In the last half of April 1821, he wrote his own will and several codicils (a total of 40-odd pages). When he died, on May 5, 1821, his last words were: "France, the Army, head of the Army, Jos�phine."

Restoration of the Monarchy To The Present

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